The City of Victoria is looking for a Council that includes all voices from the community.
It's not enough to simply listen to people when issues come before
Council - it must be shown that citizen input is reflected in the
decisions that Council makes.
From the MNP Report on Governance
Ensuring an authentic and accountable engagement process is critically important to foster trust. This includes a sincere interest in listening to public input and being prepared to act on it, setting realistic expectations regarding how the input will be used, and communicating back both what was heard and related outcomes.
In conversation with people at open house events my suggestion for hearing from the public was:
listening to citizens up front, early in the engagement process
gathering input from staff
taking input from expert consultants
discuss and synthesize with council and staff
return to public to present possible decisions, listen again
discuss again and finalize decision
report back to public on reasoning for decision, including where and how various inputs were considered
The last point is key - decisions, especially if controversial, must be clearly explained when rendered in order to ensure that all parties can be satisfied that their input has been taken into account. This is the only way to ensure that decisions can be accepted by all parties.
